What Miami's Regalado And Other U.S. Mayors Say Will Ease Gun Violence

Mayor Regalado's office is hosting a gun buy back program in Miami starting January 19th.

Credit Arianna Prothero

On the one month anniversary of the Newtown, CT school shooting, mayors across South Florida and the country called for stricter gun regulations on Monday. Among them was Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado.

Regalado is part of a bipartisan group founded in 2006 called Mayors Against Illegal Guns. Over 800 mayors are part of the organization co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

During a press conference outside Miami City Hall, Regalado explained the group is asking Congress for three things.

“To establish a requirement that every gun buyer pass a criminal background check, to get military style assault weapons and high capacity magazines off our streets, and make gun trafficking a federal crime."

Some gun law reformers are additionally calling for mental health checks.

Locally, the mayor's office is hosting a gun buy back program. Anyone willing to part with their fire arms can give them to the city in exchange for gift certificates to grocery and department stores.

The certificates are being donated by Padron Cigar Company and Dade Medical College. The Miami police department will collect and destroy the relinquished guns. Regalado has not received any pushback for supporting the initiatives.

“We have been very public with these gun buy backs,” said Regalado. “We have been very vocal in talking about illegal guns, and I have not even received an email of anybody questioning this project."

The first gun buy back day takes place January 19th at the Jordan Grove Baptist Church, 5946 N.W. 12th Ave. from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The second buy back day is January 26th at St. John Baptist Church, 1328 N.W. 3rd Ave, and the third date is February 2nd at San Juan Bosco Church, 1301 W. Flagler St.

Here are the South Florida mayors the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website lists as coalition members:

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Most of the victims of the Newtown school massacre were just like Florida Atlantic University professor James Tracy's daughter: seven-year-old first graders at a public school.

"If a similar tragedy were visited upon me and my family, I would be beside myself," he says. "But I think one of my ways of healing would be attempting to find out what went wrong, where was the failure."

But trying to start a public discussion of the public's small hope of ever finding out what went wrong has been costly.